Synopses & Reviews

Review:

"Tye offers this super-powered, well researched look into every aspect of the character in comics, radio, TV, films, and theater, muscling into such areas as insider editorial decisions, licensing, litigations, and mass comic book burnings. Following his bestselling Satchel Paige biography, Tye hits another home run with this overview. Tracing the Man of Steel through eight decades, he begins in Cleveland, where teenager Jerry Siegel created 'The Super-Man' in 1932 and then teamed with artist Joe Shuster: 'They agreed that Superman had to be everything they were not: strapping and dashing, fearless yet composed.' After six years of rejections, their character soared in 1938 to 'quickly become the big brother every kid needed.' With a contract, Siegel and Shuster had launched the multibillion-dollar industry of comic book superheroes. To document Siegel's anger and angst along with Superman's 'loves and deaths, reinventions, resurrections and redemptions,' Tye interviewed more than 250 writers, artists, editors, actors, filmmakers, and collectors, and he hired student researchers in four cities to do library and courthouse searches. The lengthy legal battles seeking fair compensation for Superman's creators fill pages. Anyone looking for truth, injustice, and the American way will find it in this comprehensive, definitive history. Agent: Jill Kneerim.(June 12)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Larry Tye was an award-winning journalist at The Boston Globe and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. A lifelong Superman fan, Tye now runs a Boston-based training program for medical journalists. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Satchel, as well as The Father of Spin, Home Lands, and Rising from the Rails, and co-author, with Kitty Dukakis, of Shock. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is currently writing a biography of Robert F. Kennedy.

"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"Tye offers this super-powered, well researched look into every aspect of the character in comics, radio, TV, films, and theater, muscling into such areas as insider editorial decisions, licensing, litigations, and mass comic book burnings. Following his bestselling Satchel Paige biography, Tye hits another home run with this overview. Tracing the Man of Steel through eight decades, he begins in Cleveland, where teenager Jerry Siegel created 'The Super-Man' in 1932 and then teamed with artist Joe Shuster: 'They agreed that Superman had to be everything they were not: strapping and dashing, fearless yet composed.' After six years of rejections, their character soared in 1938 to 'quickly become the big brother every kid needed.' With a contract, Siegel and Shuster had launched the multibillion-dollar industry of comic book superheroes. To document Siegel's anger and angst along with Superman's 'loves and deaths, reinventions, resurrections and redemptions,' Tye interviewed more than 250 writers, artists, editors, actors, filmmakers, and collectors, and he hired student researchers in four cities to do library and courthouse searches. The lengthy legal battles seeking fair compensation for Superman's creators fill pages. Anyone looking for truth, injustice, and the American way will find it in this comprehensive, definitive history. Agent: Jill Kneerim.(June 12)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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